Free practice

Pier Guidi and Meaden set out their stall

16/07/2010
- Brands Hatch

The Italian driver and English journalist were quickest at the end of the first free practice session at Brands Hatch.

Pier Guidi, after his extraordinary weekend in the European GT4 championship at Paul Ricard (in which he drove brilliantly in the GranTurismo MC GT4) stopped the clock at 1:34.460. His time was .343 faster than Richard Meaden’s. The Evo journalist knows Brand Hatch inside out and showed that he felt at home in the car from the off. Third, 1.292 seconds down, was Nicolò Piancastelli. The youngster finally managed to live up to the expectation that has surrounded him since the start of the season. He edged out a convincing Enrico Moncada (1:36.452), appearing at Brands for the first time. Fifth and sixth went to Ardagna Perez (1:36.615) and Paolo Necchi (1:36.796) as they bid to collect some crucial championship points. In the main event, they will be out to stay in front of Goldstein/Sundberg, down in ninth (1:37.187). The overall leaders were bettered by debut boy Pat Blakeney (1:36.954) and Auto Italia journalist Roberto Giordanelli (1:37.100). Completing the top ten was the Roberto Sperati/Francesco La Mazza pairing (1:37.574). Behind them came Roeger Green (1:38.033), Andreas Segler (1:38.445), Leonardo Maddalena (1:38.571), Marcel Pawlicek (1:44.536) and Massimo Larciprete (2:00.220), who, incidentally, was lucky to come out unscathed after mistiming the first hairpin.

Pier Guidi uncatchable in free practice 2

16/07/2010
- Brands Hatch

Alessandro Pier Guidi topped the timesheet at the end of the second forty-minute free practice session.

The talent from Tortona improved on his first session time by five thousandths (1:34.455) as he blew away the rest of the field. Fastest of the chasing drivers was Peter Sundberg. The Swede, racing alongside Steven Goldstein, posted a time of 1:35.587, nine thousandths up on Richard Maeden. Pat Blakeney was someone else who improved as he closed out the session with 1:36.281, a time that proved he was feeling even more at home in the GranTurismo MC Trofeo. Fifth went to Moncada/Petrini, in 1:36.376, and in sixth came a consistent Paolo Necchi (1:36.444). The virtual fourth row was occupied by Ardagna Perez (1:36.660) and Leonardo Maddalena (1:37.871), who bettered his earlier time by almost a second. Slipping down the ladder were Piancastelli/Smurra who could do no better than ninth (1:37.985), with another duo, Sperati/La Mazza (1:38.124), in tenth as they repeated their solid performance from the morning session. Outside the top ten came journalist Roeger Green (1:38.144), Roberto Giordanelli (1:38.294) in eleventh; then came German driver Andreas Segler (1:38.874) and Marcel Pawlicek (1:42.305). Bringing up the rear is Massimo Larciprete (2:01.441) as he continues his schooling in the car.